Journal stop



April 16, 1968 F. G. FISHER ET AL. 3,378,317

JOURNAL STOP Filed March 2, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 ATTORNEYS April 16, 1968 F. c. FISHER ET AL JOURNAL S TOP 2 Sheets-Sheet 55 Filed March 2, 1966 United States Patent 3,378,317 JOURNAL STOP Franklin G. Fisher, Wyomissing, and Luther L. Bollinger, Sr., Reading, Pa., assignors to Reading Company, Phila-' delphia, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Mar. 2, 1966, Ser. No. 531,105 3 Claims. (Cl. 308-40) ABSTRACT OF DISCLOSURE The present invention relates to a journal centering guide which is especially adapted for use in those journal boxes which have a waste retaining rib. Projections are made for easier welding of the journal centering guide to the journal box and also for flaring of the journal centering guide to compensate for the more restricted vertical positioning due to the presence of the waste retaining rib.

Description of invention The present invention relates to railroad journal boxes which are provided with improved journal centering guides or stops.

A purpose of the invention is to facilitate the installation of journal centering guides in approximately 50% of the journal boxes which are provided with waste retaining ribs.

A further purpose is to prevent the delay and expense of cutting out the waste retaining ribs from the journal box prior to installation of journal centering guides, using either metal burning technique with a metal cutting torch or machining technique.

A further purpose is to permit location of journal centering guides very precisely in a journal box having waste retaining ribs.

A further purpose is 'to inwardly flare the journal centering guide so as to provide ample extent of the journal centering guide above and below the center of the axle.

Further purposes appear in the specification and in the claims.

In the drawings we have chosen to illustrate one only of the embodiments in which the invention may appear, selecting the form shown from the standpoints of convenience in illustration, satisfactory operation and clear demonstration of the principles involved.

FIGURE 1 is a fragmentary end elevation of a journal box showing the improved journal centering guide mounting of the invention.

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary interior elevation of the journal centering guide and mounting shown at the left in FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 is an exploded perspective of the journal centering guide and its mounting in accordance with the invention.

FIGURE 4 is an interior elevation of the journal centering guide and mounting, with the insertion of the latch mechanism into the latch recesses in process so as to illustrate the operation more eifectively.

FIGURE 5 is a view similar to FIGURE 4 showing the latch inserted.

FIGURE 6 is an end elevation of the journal centering guide, the journal centering guide housing, the latch, the pad and a portion of the weldments applied thereto.

FIGURE 7 is a top plan of the journal centering guide assembly.

Describing in illustration but not in limitation and referring to the drawings:

Up until about 1945 journal stops or journal centering guides were not ordinarily used in American Railway Association Journals. This gave rise to difficulties by movement of the axle laterally to the axis of rotation. During 'ice braking, for example, the axle would in many cases move forward or backward (one axle forward and one backward) since motion of the axle laterally with respect to the center of the journal box is likely to take place due to slack, in connection with application of power or braking, or due to humping. Various forms of damage resulted including striking and wearing of the side of the journal box or related parts of the journal box such as the wedge, the bearing or the lubricator pads, or destroying the dust guards.

Extensive use has been made of the journal centering guides shown in our US. Patent No. 3,132,905, granted May 12, 1964, for Journal Stop. These have been readily inserted in journal boxes which are not provided with a Waste retaining rib or waste grab rib. This constitutes about one half of the journal boxes in the United States.

In the remaining half of the journal boxes, which have a waste retaining rib running horizontally at the inside of both sides of the journal box, installation of journal centering guides has been considerably more diificult and more expensive, and this has to an extent created an impediment against use of the improved journal centering guide. When journal centering guides were previously installed in journal boxes having waste retaining ribs, the practice has been to cut out the waste retaining ribs with a metal cutting torch and convert the journal box in effect to a journal box without any waste retaining ribs.

In the first place this is a nuisance and an expense since it takes even a very skilled cutting torch operator about one hour or one and one-quarter hours to burn out the retaining ribs from one car set of eight journal boxes.

In the second place, if the torch operator is not expert, he may leave burs and protrusions in the interior of the journal box which make it diflicult to mount the journal centering guides properly, and may cause the mounting to be improperly positioned or uneven.

We have discovered, contrary to previous practice, that it is possible to mount a modified journal centering guide properly in a journal box containing waste retaining ribs without removing the waste retaining ribs and that in fact the waste retaining ribs may even be an advantage rather than a disadvantage.

At each side of the journal box above the waste retaining rib there is a recess extending horizontally opposite the center of the axle, and this recess has a concave wall portion which can act like a socket.

By mounting a convex metal pad on the back of each journal centering guide housing, conforming generally to the concave wall portion, we find that it is possible to secure the journal centering guide housing to the wall of the journal box by welding. Furthermore, we extend the pad at the front beyond the journal centering guide housing so that a weld can be applied to the pad at this point without damaging the housing.

At the bottom the housing engages the waste retaining rib, which tends to hold the housing straight and in proper position during installation.

In order to accomplish the mounting of the journal centering guide housing above the waste retaining rib, we find that it is necessary to make the housing and the journal centering guide itself narrower than was previously the case, but to compensate for this we preferably flare it upwardly and downwardly toward the center of the journal so that it will have an adequate width of contact with the journal.

In order to gain convenient access for insertion and removal of the latch in the railway journal centering guide housing, we have provided a modified latch, which greatly facilitates insertion and removal in the new construction.

In the drawings We illustrate a journal box 20 of American Railway Association type which receives an axle 21 and is provided with a well-known journal (not shown). The box itself has relatively straight upper side walls 22 and a bulbous flare at 23 opposite the center 24 of the axle extending horizontally across the journal box. Below the center there is a waste retaining rib 25 at each side of the axle.

Above the waste retaining rib and at a point corresponding to the flare 23 on the side wall there is an internal recess 26 extending horizontally across the side wall and having at a position opposite the center of the axle a concave wall portion that in effect forms a socket when viewed in end elevation.

We provide a journal centering guide housing 27 which may be generally the same as that shown in our patent above referred to except that it is narrower vertically. The journal centering guide housing, desirably formed of a metal sheet such as steel, has a fiat back portion 28, inwardly converging top and bottom guidcways 30, an end wall 31 generally transverse to the back, and an open end 32 for introducing the journal centering guide. Near the open end the top and bottom walls are bent as shown at 33 to form lips 34 which extend straight out from the back 28 without converging. At suitably cooperating top and bottom points the lips 34 have latching openings 35.

Secured as by welding to the back of the housing is a metallic pad 36 suitably of steel which has a flat inwardly directed portion 37 engaging and welded to the back of the housing and a curved or arcuate back portion 38 which will engage in the concave wall portion of the recess 26 conforming generally to it. At the top and bottom there are welding beads 40 securing the pad 36 to the back of the housing and conforming at the back to the general curvature of the back of the pad as shown in FIGURE 6.

The pad 36 protrudcs at the corresponding end beyond the open end of the housing so that a weld head can be placed there uniting the housing to the journal box without interfering with the journal centering guide.

The housings are disposed in the recess with the curved outwardly directed portions 38 of the pads 36 conforming to the concave wall portions as best seen in FIGURE 1 and then secured firmly in place by a weld bead 42 between the top of the housing 27 and the concave portion of the recess, weld head 43 between the bottom of the housing 27 and the waste retaining rib 25 and weld bead 44 between the extension 41 on the pad and the concave wall portion of the recess. This weld bead 44 is safely outside the bottom of the housing so that it will not interfere with insertion and removal of the journal centering guide.

Thus the housing is secured in place without any need to cut away the waste retaining rib 25.

With the housing in place, the journal centering guide 45 is inserted in the housing by sliding in from the end with the latch removed. This consists of a block of plastic, preferably nylon or linear polyamide. The block has a flat back surface 46 which engages against the back of the housing and top and bottom outwardly converging surfaces 47 which conform to the interior of the guideways 30 in the housing. Beyond the converging surfaces 47 the block at the top and bottom has inwardly diverging surfaces 48 so as to provide a broader flat bearing surface 50 which engages the axle. The ends of the block at 51 are suitably square.

In view of the narrowness of the housing, we employ a latch 52 which comprises a U-shaped metallic spring strip handle portion 53 which desirably has opposed gripper bends 54 to facilitate engagement by the hands or by a pair of pliers or tongs and then has outwardly diverging arms 55 and parallel extensions 56 which receive and hold upwardly and downwardly extending latch pins 57 which in latched position engage in the latching recess 35.

Beyond the latch pins the arms of the latch are bent inward at right angles to form overlapping obstruction portions 58 to tend to hold the plastic block in place. One of the overlapping obstruction portions has at the end an outward bend 60 which prevents the possibility that the ends of the obstruction portions 58 would interfere with one another.

In operation of the device of the invention, once the housings are installed by welding as above described, the journal centering guides are slid into the housings and then the latches are engaged. In engaging the latches one pin 57 is desirably inserted in a latch opening as shown in FIGURE 4 and then either with the hands or with a tool the latch is contracted until the opposite pin 57 can be inserted in the latch opening as shown in FIGURE 5.

If it is desired to replace the plastic block, this can be done by reaching in with the hand or with a tool, compressing the opposite arms of the latch and then swinging the latch to the position as shown in FIGURE 4 at which the latch can be removed. Then the worn plastic block can he slid out longitudinally and the new plastic block can be inserted and the latch replaced.

In view of our invention and disclosure variations and modifications to meet individual whim or particular need will doubtless become evident to others skilled in the art, to obtain all or part of the benefits of our invention without copying the structure shown, and we therefore claim all such insofar as they fall within the reasonable spirit and scope of our claims.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A railroad journal box having spaced vertical side walls, having an axle journal entering said journal box between and in spaced relation to said side walls, having a waste retaining rib protruding from each side wall below the center of said axle and having above each waste retaining rib a recess in the side wall opposite the center of the axle and extending in a direction longitudinal of the axle, said recess having a concave wall portion disposed inwardly toward the axle, in combination with journal centering guide devices each having a journal centering guide housing provided with guideways a plastic journal centering guide slidably mounted in the guideways of said housing and extending longitudinally of said axle facing the axle, having a latch holding the journal centering guide in the housing, and each having secured to the back of the journal centering guide housing a metallic pad which conforms generally to and engages the concave wall portion of one of the recesses above one of the waste retaining ribs, said pad extending endwise of the journal centering guide housing beyond the same, welds securing said journal centering guide housing at the top and bottom to one of the side walls of the journal box, and a weld securing the endwise extension of each pad to one of the side walls of the journal box.

2. A railroad journal box of claim 1, in which the journal centering guide flares upwardly and downwardly as it extends inwardly beyond the housing at each side of the journal box.

3. A railroad journal box of claim 1, in which the journal centering guide is of nylon.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,132,905 5/1964 F. G. Fisher et al. 308-40 3,302,985 2/1967 J. A. Zupez et a]. 30840 MARTIN P. SCHWADRON, Primary Examiner. 

